Please don't leave me
by Sunriserooftops
Summary: After loosing love, Rory finds herself heading down a very dangerous path, risking both her life and the ones of people she love. Rory/Tristan, Rory/Dean frienship, SPN AU
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1. I need your help**

"Tristan?"

Rory fell back into bed, her eyes closed and her breath ragged.

No answer. The door had been unlocked to their apartment and the coffee was still hot. How she loved him for having managed to make coffee she could drink, for once. The cup was on the nightstand, smoking away. She swallowed and called out again.

"Tristan?"

Still no answer. The sweat trickled down her face. No more running this week – no – more. She opened her eyes, the trickling feeling turning into something very different.

"NO!" She shouted, the fire roaring out from the middle of Tristan's body, his back pressed flat against the ceiling. Rory bounced off the bed, the coffee knocked over as she hurried out of the room.

* * *

Rory shuddered as her cell phone rang in her wet pocket. The rain came down heavy on her as she sat there, wrapped in a blanket as she watched her apartment and the love of her life burning up. She had no more tears to cry, no more sorrow she could express. She felt empty as she hauled the phone out of her pocket and looked at the number.

Sam.

"What?" she answered tiredly.

"_We heard._"

"So soon?"

"_You sound_-"

"Like you did."

"_Yeah_."

"Where are you?"

"_On our way_."

"See you soon."

Dial tone. Rory shuddered again, this time suppressing a sob that would otherwise have torn her chest in half. The slow moments from then to when she would see the brothers Winchester turned Rory Gilmore onto a whole new path in life. Something that, if she had only taken the time to think, she would have understood it would be the end of her life as well as her lover's.

* * *

The Impala stopped short outside Lorelai's house, Rory standing still on the steps of the house. The white door opened and out came Rory's mom, putting an arm around her as she waved to the boys.

"Long time no see," she said, trying to smile. Both hers and Rory's faces were puffy from crying, and Rory's eyes were bloodshot. This was the first thing Dean noticed as he walked two steps behind his brother up to the porch.

"It really was," Sam said, his arms reaching out to embrace them both. They accepted the hug quickly and Dean followed his brother's example as soon as it was his turn.

"How did you find out?" Rory said, her voice cracking at the end.

"Bobby Singer."

"I never called a Bobby-"

"I did," Lorelai cut off. "I mean, Tristan's aunt Ellen called me and-"

"Mom."

"Rory. This is their life too."

"I-I-" Rory stuttered before she gave up, shaking her head. Her eyes welled up as she sniffled.

"It was a fire," Lorelai said. "And if I'm not completely stupid as far as this goes," she continued, calm and collected. "It might have been the same thing that killed your mother. And, I'm guessing, your father?"

She watched the boys closely, and they knew it. She saw their jaws flex at the same time, the look in their eyes and knew she was right far before they nodded. But that was Lorelai Gilmore, she knew people.

"Mmmhm," she said after a short while, Sam looking at Rory.

"Did anything else happen?" His voice was sweet and caring, as always, but it bothered Dean.

"No..." Tears welled up in her eyes and Dean shook his head.

"Don't push her," he said softly, looking at Lorelai.

"Sam, could you and Rory go insida? I need to talk to Dean for a moment," she said softly, close to Dean and Sam, Rory not supposed to overhear.

"Sure." Sam put his arm around Rory and opened the door.

She was shaking.

Lorelai and Dean left the porch, starting to wander the lawn.

"Dean, I'm scared she doesn't know how to handle this. She's never had this kind of a loss before. Seeing Tristan burn up- That has to leave a scar I can't imagine. She need to get out of Stars Hallow, needs to get away from the people who tell her everything is going to be okay and pat her on the head- that's all ths town has to offer her right now. I need your help. I need you to take her somewhere where she can heal, learn new things and get over the worst of this. Please? Dean, please?"

Without a moments pause Dean nodded. "I'll take her to Bobby Singer's place, she'll be safe there, and there's people she can meet, like Ellen and Jo. Ash. Bobby ofcourse."

"I think she just needs closure. Something that-"

"Lorelai, don't- I know. It's gonna be okay. I'll help her. I've had some - experience."

"She said she couldn't take it anymore-" Lorelai's sobbed broke off, and she shook her head.

"It feels like that sometimes. Lorelai- Hey. Hey!" She looked up at him. "I'll take care of her."

"I know you will. I'm just scared she won't ever be the same sweet girl we all know and love. I'm so scared this has broken something in her that can't be healed."

"Maybe it has. But the girl you'll get back will be stronger. Stronger and smarter."

Lorelai gave a short laugh. "Yeah, cos she needs to be smarter." Dean gave the same short laugh, and then looked at the house. Sam was standing in a window looking out at them. Dean pulled out his cell and typed a short message.

Help her pack a bag. We're taking her with us. Leaving in 20.

Sam nodded.

"We're leaving in twenty minutes, if she needs to say goodbye to someone, now would be a good time to get them over here."

* * *

Rory's cold hands slowly folded the dress her mother had laid out on the bed. Gently she swallowed and tried to focus on the packing. She had lots more to do, and not much time to do it. Lorelai helped her, taking her things from the wardrobe where she had just hung her things, to her bed. She saw her mother, shaking with every move she made. This was bad.

She saw the pain in her mother's eyes when she looked up to meet them, saw the reflection of her own dead eyes in them. It struck a cold nerve deep down inside that chilled her to the bone. She needed this, she realized just then. She needed to get away.

The knock on the door made her jump, and Lorelai turned from the wardrobe to the door and went to open.

The muffled voice of Luke and Sookie made her throat thick, and then she heard the other voice. Dean. No, not Winchester. The other one…

Dean looked from his brother to the boy standing in the door. Lorelai paused and almost smiled.

"Sam, Dean, this is Dean Forester. Dean, this is Sam and Dean Winchester." Sam and Dean stared at each other, the sight of the other turning them speechless. Dean laughed at his brother and the boy, trying not to giggle as he watched the two, almost identical, boys gape in awe. He was so close to bursting out laughing.

"Hi," Sam said, still not blinking.

"Hey," Dean replied and looked from Sam to Lorelai.

"Okay, am I the only one who sees the funny in this?" Dean asked with a smart smirk on his face. Sam and Dean looked back at Dean, their eyes filled with the same dark sense non-humour.

"I see it," Rory's faint voice replied. She was standing in the doorway, looking ever so small and fragile. If she had never looked like a doll before, she did right then.

"It's funny, right?" Dean asked, looking from tall brown haired boy to tall brown haired boy. They even had the same eye color – it was hilarious!

Rory nodded. "It is. Like a mirror that changes your clothes," she said, a smirk suddenly crossing her face. Dean laughed, the first sign of joy she had expressed all day. This made Lorelai burst out in laughter as well, her eyes welling up with tears of joy as Rory actually began to laugh.

"They look like- clones." Luke stared at The Deans' and Sam with a strange look on his face, his eyebrows furrowed and the chubby woman behind him was laughing hysterically.

"They really do," she laughed. "Like clones."

He had never met the round woman, but he assumed it was Sookie, the chef at the Dragonfly Inn. He'd heard of her, but Luke, he'd met him before.

"How you doing Luke?" Dean asked, shaking the man's hand.

"I'm good," he said, looking over at Lorelai, who's eyes he caught at once. The shared look was one of affection and love. "A little worried," he added, shooting a quick look over at Rory. "But I know you'll take care of her," he whispered, his eyebrows furrowing again.

"I'll do what I can," he replied in a hushed voice.

* * *

The car hummed down the road, the roaring engine in the background to the rock music. Rory had closed her eyes for just one second, and she woken up to the sound of a silent scream. The image that flooded her mind was the same one she had heard Sam talk about. Only this was her nightmare. Tristan burning up, his blood dripping down over her.

"Dean?"

His head jerked and he looked in the rear-view mirror. "You're up?"

"Can't sleep."

"Sam had the same problem… what's up?"

"I wondered if – no, I mean. Where we're going. Who is he?"

"Bobby Singer?"

"Yeah."

"He's… Like me. Like Ellen and Jo, like dad and Sam. A hunter."

"I know, but," she closed her eyes. "How is this going to help me?"

"Help you? What are you talking about?"

"Come on Dean, I know you guys are taking me to Bobby just to – to – I need to move on."

"Maybe you do. Maybe you just need to heal without people patting your head all the time."

"Maybe."

"Try to sleep, or at least rest. I'll wake you when we get there."

"I don't want to sleep. I can't stand seeing him again." Her voice was weak and tired.

"Rory, you need to sleep…" She nodded, and closed her eyes.

Bobby looked out his window late the following afternoon, realizing the black Impala was holding three people instead of the usual two.

The phone buzzed, the display showing Ellen's name. He flipped it opened and she began to talk. She told him about her nephew Tristan and the fire, about the girl he'd been living with and the fact that the Winchester's were on their way there with her right now.

"Yeah, I know- I can see the damn car pullin up now. Ellen, this girl – what's'er'name?"

"Lorelai. Rory, and she's been through a lot with Tristan's murder Bobby. She needs-"

"I know," he grumbled and flicked the phone shut.

The Impala honked and he was already on the porch.

"Hey boys, Rory," he called, taking the steps down the porch in a hurry. "Sam, Dean, there's beer in the fridge, go ahead and help yourselves. Rory, could I talk to you a moment?"

She looked confused, like she'd been trampled by a rabbit. "Sure."

* * *

The cars stood high on top of each other, Rory feeling smaller than ever. She looked around the vast area of scrap.

"I heard about-"

"Please, I don't need anymore pity," she interrupted.

"I know, and I wasn't about to give you any." She looked up at him, her eyes wide with shock and her mouth falling open.

"You – You weren't?"

"No," he said, as a-matter-a-fact-ly as he could be. Bobby shrugged and then he smiled. "I don't care what you've been through. As long as you're here, you'll pull your weight and learn what I think you need to learn."

"Bobby."

Dean appeared behind Bobby's tall body, and Rory flinched at the strange tone in his voice. She was sure Dean was going to tell Bobby off, by the look on his face and the tone of his voice.

"Yeah?" Bobby asked, not even looking over his shoulder.

"Where's the car?"

"Out back, behind the shed."

"Thanks."

Dean marched over there, Rory gaping as Bobby left her alone.

* * *

"Tough love, is that it?" she yelled. Dean stood up, his shirt already covered in dirt and some grease.

"What?"

"Tough love? Bobby telling me he won't pity me, you ignoring me, Sam not wanting to talk. Is this all some way of getting me to, I dunno-"

"Rory, calm down-"

"I will not!" she yelled. "I have been patient, and kind, and loveable my whole life! I have tried and tried, God knows I have tried! Tristan understood! He loved me! Loved me! ME! Not for who I was as a writer, or as a daughter, or whatever, but ME! The Me I was faaar before Yale, far before Logan and Jess and- and-"

And finally burst into tears.

Dean just looked at her. Her hysterical shouting faded and she began to sob.

"Rory." His voice was soft, compassionate, even gentle. She quickly turned away, running back in the direction of the house. Dean looked after her a short while, not really knowing what to do.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2. Realization**

"So you're saying there isn't a way?" Rory asked sceptically.

"There are no ways that'll allow you to keep him," Bobby rumbled, for the fortieth time that night.

"All right then, no good ways. But Bobby, I just want him back."

The man nodded and looked over his shoulder at the coffee. He got up, picking her mug up as well, and went over to the counter. He poured them each a cup of coffee and then sat back down across from her. "Drink your coffee and put that outta your head, you get me?"

Rory nodded, feeling tired and beyond hope.

"Has anything ever happened to Dean and Sam? I mean, really bad?"

Bobby nodded. "There's been things. Their mom died, their father traded his life for Dean's-"

"What? How?"

"Rory." Bobby got up from his chair and put his cup in the sink.

"Come on, that has to be eating on Dean!"

"Dean still hates himself for what John did, making deals are a dangerous business!" Bobby was angry and then he realized he'd just said too much. "And it never ends well for anyone, you hear me missy?"

* * *

Dean flipped the phone open. "Bobby?"

"It's me."

"Rory, shouldn't you be in bed? It's late." The dark road opened up before him and he smiled a little.

"I just- I needed to hear a voice. Bobby's been in bed for hours..."

Dean chuckled. "Yeah, I bet he has. When he's not hunting he likes taking it easy and unwinding all day." He smiled. "Are you sleeping at all?"

"Yeah."

"Liar. I know what Sam was like. How are the nightmares?"

She stayed quiet.

"That bad?"

"Not any more. But, yeah."

"If it makes a difference, I really wish you hadn't gone through that," he said in a lower voice.

"But Dean, imagine if it was Sam – what would you do to make sure he was okay?"

Dean's jaw hardened. "When Sam died I-"

"He what? Dean- what did you do to get him back?"

"Rory, I mean this, put it out of your head. Now. What dad did was stupid and reckless and now I have to pay for it."

"But Dean, you're alive, you're back!" He could hear the pleading in her voice. "Tell me how to do it, tell me how to get him back Dean!"

"Good night Rory."

He hung up, knowing this wouldn't be the end of it. He knew it was probably just the beginning and that was never a good thing. Not for the innocent Rory Gilmore.

It hadn't been for Tristan.

* * *

Rory stared at her hands in the dark, trying to find a reason to go on. She'd tried to be alive. She'd done all she could to mourn him. All she could think of was getting him back. She wanted Tristan! No matter what that meant for her, she knew she had to get him back. Somehow, she would find out.

She leaned back in bed, finally, and fell into some form of sleep.

"Rory?"

"Tristan!" She ran up to him and threw herself around his neck. "Finally, how was Texas?"

"Boring."

And then the world fast forwarded to her lying in bed with a content smile. The fresh smell of coffee filling her nose and Tristan coming into the room with a tray filled with pancakes and coffee and fruit. She smiled at him. "Have I told you how much I love you?" she asked as he put the tray beside her and bent to kiss her.

"Every day," he smiled, getting back into bed.

"Good," she beamed, munching down on the pancakes and drinking some of the scolding hot coffee. "This is really good," she smiled.

"Good," he said, taking a piece of a pancake.

And then something happened, Rory hadn't seen it coming.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3. Come away **

From somewhere a howling shriek made it's way to the bed of Bobby Singer, who sprang up like he didn't know his age and grabbed the gun by the side of his bed. He ran towards the horrible screaming, banging in the door of the room that held a sleeping girl by the name of Rory Gilmore. She was still screaming for all she was worth, but there was nothing in the room. She was just sitting there, straight up in bed, her eyes wide open in terror and she screamed, and screamed, and then she caught her breath only to continue screaming.

He let out a loud sigh and put his gun against the door, leaning it in a habitual way and went over to the bed. He sat down on the far end, below her feet and he looked at her, tears streaming down her face.

She hadn't eaten all week, the crying all night and now the night-terrors and screaming. He had no choice.

When she stopped for half a second Bobby saw his chance, he leaned her back in her bed, turning her on her side and turned the light on the bedside table on. She closed her mouth, and started panting heavily, like she had just run a marathon.

He regretfully shook his head and left the girl in her bed, heading down the stairs into the kitchen to dial the number of either Winchester brother.

* * *

"Bobby?" Sam asked drowsily as he answered the phone and was greeted by a gruff snort.

"Aren't you a genuis," the man muttered and Sam almost smiled, even though he was dead tired.

"What is it Sam?" Dean asked, looking at Sam with a furrowed brow. He shrugged.

"What's up Bobby?" Sam asked the phone and looked at his brother as Bobby explained. He then nodded. "Okay. Dean, I think you might want to hear this." He tossed the phone to Dean, who caught it and started pacing around the room as he listened to the story Bobby was telling him. At the end he drew a heavy sigh, pinched the ridge of his nose and nodded.

"We're on our way back, Bobby. We'll be there before noon." And then he hung up. Sam glared at him.

"We haven't slept in-"

"I know, Sam!" Dean snapped. "But there are some things that needs to be done anyway. This," he said, pointing to the floor for some reason. "Is one of them!" He then continued by throwing everything he had unpacked into the duffelbag and left the motel room, in his PJ pants.

* * *

Bobby kept glacing out the window every few minutes and Rory was to tired to care. She vaguely remembered dreaming about Tristan again, about the coffees and the dinners and all the little things that made him so perfect. Just thinking about it made her want to scream her head off. She wondered why...

Bobby got off his chair by the kitchen table and bolted for the door. She heard the gravel crunch outside but didn't care. She wrapped the blanket closer around herself and leaned back.

* * *

"Is she okay?" Dean said, jumping out of the car almost before it had stopped.

"No."

It was a simple answer that put Dean in a state of concern. Something new for him, when it didn't come to family.

He burst through the door with Bobby and Sam right on his heels and he stopped dead in his tracks whispering "Oh my god" as he saw the hollowed out face of Rory Gilmore. Her eyes were blodshot, she had deep dark circles under her eyes and her cheeks seemed to have sunk into her skull. "Oh my god," he repeated, looking over his shoulder at Bobby who shrugged.

"She kept saying she had eater, when I came in after having been in the garage. I didn't want to argue with her, she was already so upset. Last night, she woke me up, screamin' bloody murder. I thought someone was tryin'a kill her."

"Rory," Dean called, his voice demanding. "Get up. Now," he said, trying to yank her up from the couch as she struggled.

"No," she complained.

"Yes, now, this fuggin instant. Sam, food. Coffee!" he ordered and looked back at Rory. "And you are taking a shower, chaning clothes and then you are going to eat before we hit the road." He pushed her in the direction of the bathroom, pulling a shirt from his bag and throwing it at her. "Now!" he barked. She looked at him, eyes wide in shock and she complied.

"Where are we going?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head. "No, Sammy, I'll take this one alone, sorry. I'm taking her to see Missouri. She needs answers, and we all know she can't find them on the road. It'll be the death of her."

Bobby nodded, but Sam looked heavily disapproving. "You're going to take care of her? You? Mister Sensitive?"

"I think we've been nice enough about her starving herself and not going outside and all the other crap she's been pulling since we took her in. It's time for the real tough love."

"That," Bobby said wagging a finger in Dean's direction. "Is a good idea."

Rory looked pale and exhausted when she emerged from the bathroom, but the boys forced some food into her, some coffee down her throat and Bobby told her to pack up. She looked scared, and he said she wasn't being thrown out because she was depressed. He told her, in a sweet and fatherly way, that he was worried and that he wanted her to feel better, so she was going to go with Dean to meet a friend of Sam and Dean's father's. Rory then nodded and made her way up the stairs.

* * *

"Will you be okay?" Sam asked Dean as he threw Rory's stuff in the trunk.

"Will you?" Dean shot back, way more worried about his brother than about his own life. Sam nodded and smiled.

"You know me," he said meakly.

"Yeah, I do," Dean scoffed and then they shared that odd brotherly smile they had.

"Be careful kid," Bobby said to Rory as they came out the front door.

She nodded weakly and glared at Dean. "I'll try," she said, almost sweetly still.

"Good. Sam, there's a car over there for ya, the keys are in the ignition. Dean, safe journeys." Bobby nodded at them all and then turned around, locked the door and walked over to his own car. "Oh and by the way, call me when you got something," he said, and all four of them ducked into a car.

"I hate you," Rory clarified.

"No. You hate the demon that killed your boyfriend," Dean said and she glared at him.

"I could have wasted away and not even have known how unhappy I was," she snapped, almost growling it at him.

"Yes, and then your mother would have been sent to jail for killing me, Sam, Bobby, Ellen and oh, everyone else that's tried to help. No thanks!"

"You are so-" she started, steam almost visable coming out her ears.

"What?" he said, deflating her with a huge smile. "Charming?"

"Urgh." She turned and looked out the side of the window as the world rushed past her, the car roaring down a highway.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4. Never walk away**

The car slowed down and Rory looked at the sign as they drove past it. Lawrence, Kansas. She'd heard Tristan talking to Ellen about the fire in Lawrence, they used to talk about it like it might be key – Rory hadn't know just how into the hunting stuff Tristan was until that night at Ellen's.

She looked over at Dean, who had a stearn look on his face. She contemplated saying something, maybe something that could offer some comfort. But knowing Dean's strongheadedness she better not. He wasn't going to admitt to being hurt or even tired. The main road led off onto a parking lot that Dean turned into. She saw the small sign over the entrance. Motel.

"I hate motels," she muttered as she got out of the car.

"Why?" Dean looked over the top of the car at her, she shrugged and looked up at the building.

"They all have the same itchy fabric."

"It's not itchy-" Dean started to protest. He stopped himself when he took another look at Rory. She knew her face was set in its ways, stubborn was one of them. "Come on, let's go get checked in."

* * *

"And how long are you staying?" the woman asked.

"A week." Behind him he felt Rory about to protest, but he just raised a hand and shook his head. "Don't start with me," he warned her. He was in no mood argue with her.

* * *

As soon as the door to the motel room was closed, Rory turned to Dean with an expression he'd rather not deal with right then.

"What the hell are you playing at?" she asked him, spitting out the words.

"Playing at?"

"We can't stay a week in a place where there's nothing to hunt!"

"Rory, look at me – hey, listen!" He saw her reflection in the window, her face was grim and her eyes sad. He'd seen the same look on his own face a million times when he'd looked in the mirror. He put a hand on her shoulder and turned her around to face him. Her sad eyes was too much for him. "Rory, look, okay, we're here to see someone who might be able to tell us what's going on. I for one would like to know why Tristan? Don't you? What made him a target? Or, was the target really you, and if so, why? Missouri might have the answers."

She looked at him, her big blue eyes filled with tears. "And what if she don't have any answers? What if all she can gives us are more questions Dean? I don't want any more questions, the one's in my head are more than enough and – and I can't stand to have some random person talk about the person I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with!"

"Rory-" His hand on her shoulder was meant to offer console. But as much as he wanted to comfort this little girl that was right there, her chest ripped open for the whole world to see, there was really nothing he could do. "It's not answers for just you and me, there's a whole world out there wondering what's going on. I owe it to them, to my brother, to Bobby, to Ellen and Jo, to figure this out."

She looked at him, and a flicker of something crossed her face. "Have you always had the world on you shoulders?"

"We're staying Rory, and that's that. Now go to sleep, we have a long day tomorrow."

* * *

Sam sat down on the other side of the bar and smiled at Ellen.

"How you doing kid? You look beat," she said.

He nodded. "Dean took off with Rory, and I can't help but worry about him. He hasn't been himself since we got her out of Stars Hollow."

"I'm sure he's fine, Sam. Dean's a good kid, no matter him hitting on any girl that breathes, but he's a good hunter and, one day, he'll be a good man too. You guys having to leave your hometown so soon in your life has affected Dean, Sam, something I don't think you really see. He was torn from everything he knew when he was just a kid. Having to do the same thing, more or less, to Rory... It might just have him in knots, that's all."

"How'd you get so smart?"

"I see a lot of people Sam, not all of them as whole as you boys, but some not as damaged as your brother. You just need to allow him to protect you sometimes, kid." She smiled, and put a beer in front of him.

"Ash around?"

"Yup," she said, pointing to the mullet by the pool table.

"Thanks," he said, raising the beer a little before getting off his stool and began to walk towards Ash.

"Hey Sam?" Ellen called.

"Yeah?"

"How bad was she? When Dean took her from Bobby's?"

"She was pretty skinny, and she looked haggard. Older. Tired."

"Tristan loved that girl more than anything, he'd hate to see her like that..." She looked away, and the expression on her face made Sam turn back to the bar and sit down where he had been sitting a few minutes ago.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Tristan was a Harvelle, you know that. Well, he was more of a Harvelle than my sister would like him to be. He didn't go away to military school, Sam. He came to stay with me and Jo. My sister thought that maybe I could straighten him out, or that my husband could. She had no idea my hubby had been gone for years – she never even talked to me until she needed that favour..."

"That sucks," Sam said, looking her over. "But why are you telling me?"

"Tristan was, and always will be, adopted."

* * *

When Rory was tucked in safely in her bed, sleeping like a baby with nightmares, he snuck out of the room and got into the Impala. He needed to talk to Missouri, alone.

* * *

The door yanked open as Dean's foot hit the bottom step of the stairs. "What's taking you so long?" she said and smiled. "Come on in Dean."

He sat down on her couch and looked at her. "You know why I'm here..."

"Yes."

"Well?"

"I'm not sure what I'm allowed to tell you Dean." Missouri sat down heavily. She looked into his eyes and he suddenly didn't feel alone anymore. "Things are going straight to hell boy, and some things aren't meant to be stopped... But I can tell you this-"

* * *

Dean got out of the car back in the parking lot at the motel. He closed the door when he heard a screeching sound behind him- tires on asphalt!

He turned around just in time to see a green car speeding out of the parking lot, a blond girl behind the wheel, going past him with a small wave out the open window of the car.

"WHAT THE HELL!" he shouted after her.

If he'd been a little more tired and a little more annoyed he'd have pointed his gun at the back tires and made he skid all over the road. But he didn't; he wasn't that tired or that easily irritated. And somewhere in the back of his mind he thought he knew the driver. But he just wasn't sure...

* * *

The door opened silently and he had almost gotten over to the second bed when Rory sat up, turning her bedside lamp on and looked at him.

"Where have you been?" Her voice was attempting anger, but he heard the anxious under all that. He smiled in the dark.

"I went to get the car fueled up and then I got a beer."

"Oh." When the disappointment seemed to have rolled off her she nodded to his phone."Sam called. He told you to call Ellen."

"What, now? It's late..."

"When you got in, you were to call Ellen. I'm just telling you what Sam told me."

* * *

The phone rang and Ellen bolted for the handset. "Yeah?" she said, not even bothering answering with her name.

"It's Dean, I was told to call-"

"It's Jo, Dean. She's missing."

She could hear Dean let out a little sigh. "Again?"

"Is she with you?"

"No, I only have Rory with me. Ellen, look-"

"I need you here Dean, all hands on deck and all that... You need to come back."

"Ellen," he said in a lower voice. "I understand you are worried about Jo, but she's done this before and you raised her well. She's strong, remember the ghost? She can handle herself a lot more than you seem to think right now. But there is something you don't understand – I already made a promise to one mother of keeping her daughter safe. And as much as I like and respect you Ellen, coming to your aid would break that promise. If I see Jo, so help me I will drive her right to your doorstep. But we have a meeting with Missouri tomorrow, and Rory might finally get some kind of answer. I'm not taking that from her," he said, his voice level and reasonable.

"Dean, this is my baby-"

"I know. And I'll try calling her, I promise. Just don't let people know you've tlaked to me about her being missing, then the word won't get out and she might answer when I call her."

"Fine," she said with a sigh. She knew Dean was right, and she already has a Winchester on the case.

"Ellen, are you okay?" he asked. She was taken by surprise, blinking the tears away.

"That girl is my only family, Dean, how can I be okay?"

"I hear you," he said. "Tell Sammy to be careful, and that Rory's okay."

"I will."

"Thanks."

"Bye."

"Bye," he said and then she heard the dialtone fromfar away. She hung up the handset and looked around the empty bar. Every hunter she knew was looking for her girl. Apart from Dean, who was looking after another girl who was more or less her kin.

Why did the Harvelles always get their hearts broken?

* * *

"Rory please," he said, looking at her over the top of the car again. She stood wih her arms crossed looking at the big house.

"Why are we doing this?" she complained. "I don't want to see some psychic who tells me he misses me and that the world will be all right in a while-"

"Missouri isn't like that."

"Damn straight I'm not," a voice sounded. Rory and Dean turned to face the open door. "It's gonna start raining any time now, so just get your butts inside before the thunder starts wreaking havoc." Rory stared at the doorway as the big woman moved away, into the house. Dean was already headed for the stairs while Rory just stood there with her mouth woman was nothing like the psychics on tv...

The rain slowly started to trickled down over her, and she ran for the door.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5. We're not in Kansas anymore**

Missouri watched the skinny girl as she sat down on her couch, how she curled up against the armrest, how she kept an eye on Dean at all time and to Missouri's great displeasure, Lorelai Gilmore the younger was getting more and more like John Winchester had been when he first came to see her.

"Look, child," Missouri said, cutting straight to the point. "There are things out there, and I grant you one more hunter in the world would make it a better place but girl- You ain't no hunter."

Rory looked up at her. "Excuse me?"

"You are a Yale drop out, drop in, graduate Lorelai. You are an only child, sister of a sister you don't know and you have had your heart smushed a few times, am I right?"

She nodded. "But don't think you can tell me what I am-"

"Ah, au contraire mon ami," Missouri said in broken french. "I know exactly what you are miss Gilmore. You are the only heiress to the Gilmore money, but more than that, you are a woman in a great deal of pain." Missouri wouldn't let go o Rory's blue eyes.

"I am no-"

"Broken hearts mend, child. And I know that it's a big old cliché, but we have clichés for a reason Rory; they are often right." She looked the girl over, and she seemed to crumble in on herself as Missouri said that. "I know you came for answers, and the only answer I can give you Rory, is to stick with the plan Dean has. All the thoughts running around in that pretty hea dof yours," she shook her head. "They are all useless and not a bit helpful. Sam and Dean may be headstrong, just like their father, and they may be a lot of other things too, but so help me, they are strong and know what they are doing Rory. If Dean thinks talking to me will help, then talk."

She looked around the room, spotting Dean out in the waiting room. She smiled. "And he's a strong man, isn't he? Capable of protecting you from whatever it is you are so scared of?"

Rory shook her head. "He can't protect me from a life without Tristan. And a life without Tristan," she sobbed softly. "That's a life I can't live."

"I know you believe that right now Rory, and for now that might very well me true. But trust me, Tristan wouldn't want you doing this to yourself-"

"You don't know Tristan," Rory snapped, her eyes finally fueled with passion.

"Yes! There it is, there you are! Look at you, a little passion in your eyes, a little color in your cheeks. Rory Gilmore, being hunter might just suit you, but you better get real passionate real quick." Missouri stopped and looked over her shoulder at Dean.

"And you, young man," she called, Dean got to his feet and over to the doorway. "You should make sure this one here leaves all her crazy ideas where they were meant to be, locked away in her head." Dean nodded, looking over at Rory who was about to cry.

Missouri turned around and put a hand on Rory's hand. "If you let yourself be in the pain you are actually feeling, and not try to hide it so hard, you will become who you used to be in a matter of months, Rory. But if you continue to let it eat away at you, you will kill yourself. Is that what you want?"

Rory shook her head. "But I can't help it, I will love him until I die, how can I just- move on?"

Dean's voice was ragged and he looked sad when he said; "No one asked you to move on, and I just want you to not be in as much pain..."

* * *

Rory stepped slowly down the wet stairs and Dean stood by Missouri's side in her hallway. "What is it?" he asked her, looking at her face, bleak and grim with more than a little worry.

"Dean, that girl is in some deep trouble. It's not just the loss of her love that is eating at her," she looked at him now, her eyes filled with something he couldn't read. "When the time comes, just remember not to make the stupid decision, okay? You are her guide back to life, Dean, she needs you to be strong and make the right decisions in order to keep her on the path to what she is meant for. If you stray, so will she. And who knows what will happen then..."

"You are saying that her future hangs on my moral compass?" What he was really thinking was: Aren't we just fucked?

* * *

"How do you feel?" he asked as they got into the motel room.

Rory nodded, taking her shoes off before sitting on her bed. "I'm tired. It feels like someone might have beaten me a few times over... With a mallet. My head feels huge and my back is aching. So does my heart." The last part she said very quietly.

"Rory," he said, sitting down beside her on the bed. "It's okay to be sad." She could feel the heat comming of his body, his warm being comforting her just by being close.

"I know. But Tristan and I had a deal... And that's what's really killing me."

Dean raised his eyebrows and Rory tried on a smile. She felt it pinch her cheeks, but she smiled no matter.

"We had a deal, that if one of us died... The other of us would go to New York for a weekend at a spa. I never knew wy he insisted on making that deal, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn't know he was planning on going so soon after," she said, trying a light tone on. It felt strange, heavy in a way. Like a bad fitting winter jacket.

"You promised him you wuld go?"

"Yes."

"Have you been yet?"

"No."

"And when were you planning on going?"

"I don't-"

"You promised him."

Rory squinted at Dean. "What are you thinking?"

"I am thinking pack you bags, you can sleep in the car if you're tired."

"And where are we going?" Rory said, a strange something in her voice.

"New York," Dean said, turning his back on her as he headed into the bathroom.

Dammit, she thought and got off of her bed.

* * *

Jo stumbled to the door, hearing the music and the people inside she knew she had almost made it. She was just about home. She put her tired hand to the outside of the door, and since it was this late at night and the door was unlocked, the door pushed open with her body weight and Jo fell, head first, in through the door.

The last thing she remembered was how the bar went silent and then how chairs scraped against the floor.

"JO!"

Ellen's voice seemed far away and Jo pushed the corner of her mouth up a little, before the world went blank.

* * *

Dean threw first Rory's bag in the trunk and then his own.

"Come one, let's go already," he called impatiently up the stairs. Rory came down with a strange look on her face.

"Dean, I don't want to go to New York."

"Sure, I know you don't. But that doesn't change a god damn thing. Get in the car. Get in the car!" He smiled and so did Rory as she opened the door to the passenger seat and got in.

"You are out of your mind, you didn't get to talk to Missouri about all the things you needed."

"Oh never mind that," Dean said, keeping it from her that he had in fact talked to Missouri. The other night when they first got there, though he had told Rory he had gotten the car fueled and a beer, he had been at Missouri's. She didn't need to know that. That was his family drama, not hers.

"So, tell me, did you guys decide on a s-?" His phone rang, cutting him off. He flipped the phone open to see Ellen's number.

"Hey Ellen, I tried calling her last night but-"

"She's back. And Dean, she's-" Ellen broke into a sob, and Dean just stared at the streaingwheel.

"Ellen, what is it?"

"She's been beaten, Dean, and it's bad. She won't wake up... The doctor's are saying she's suffered some damage and that she might- she might not – Dean, what am I going to do?"

"Have you called Bobby?"

"Not yet," she said, her voice almost breaking again. "I thought I'd let you know first, so you could – focus – on Rory."

"Tell Jo my thoughts are with her, Ellen, and with you – we'll be aorund as soon as we can We just have something to do real quick."

"That's fine Dean, I didn't expect you to come running-"

"I would, but you've got Sam. He's the one who's good to have around in a crisis." He could hear Ellen nodding.

"He's being a real superstar," she said softly.

"Call Bobby, Ellen, he might have some real answers."

* * *

Rory had been a sleep for a while in the back seat when Dean's phone rang again. Sam...

"What's up, Sam?" he asked.

"You heard about Jo?"

"Yeah, I did. She getting any better?"

"Not really. But that's not why I'm calling. Dean, Rory's life has been good, mostly, but she's been beaten over a couple of times when it comes to love..."

"I'm listening."

And then Sam told Dean about how Rory met her first boyfriends, Dean – the guy they had met when they came to get her in Stars Hollow. When Rory went to Chilton her met and attracted a young man, Tristan Dugrey. He eventually went off to Military school, or that was the offical story.

"Hold on, the what?"

"I'm comming to that Dean, patience."

The Sam told him about Luke's nephew Jess, who came and added some passion in Rory's life, a streak of the bad-boy, from New York and filled with being a rebel. He got Rory's arm broken, and a triangle between Jess, Rory and Dean was in full spin.

But Dean had enough at a dance, where he broke up with her in front of Jess, who was there just to tease – or that was at least Ellen's take on what Tristan had told her – and then, slowly, Jess and Rory got together. It was blind passion it seemed from the outside, and maybe more so from the inside. But it ended badly, Jess running away, first to LA to meet his dad and the to New York where he eventually stayed.

"Please, slow down," Dean said, his head spinning. He looked over his shoulder at Rory. "How far along are we?"

"Not too far, she still hasn't gone off to when she does, it slows down a little. She meets this guy." His name was Logan Huntzberger, and was old money, just like Rory. He was even more of a bad boy than Jess and got her into all kinds of trouble. At a point Rory even dropped out of Yale because of Logan's family and their influence over the media world. But when Logan proposed, she turned him down. And a few days after, she met Tristan again.

"They both had just gotten out of relationships and was both hurt. Tristan was tired of structure and Rory was tired of being what someone else wanted her to be." Sam took a breath and then he added "So they started their fling, as they called it, and it wasn't too long before their fling had turned into something more. Or, that's what Ellen says. She said, when Tristan talked about Rory, he looked like a munk talking about God. Completely enamoured."

"So, sam, what you are saying is, that she's never caught a break and had a happy end?"

"Dean, only you can have a happy end."

"Shut up Sam, you know what I mean."

"I do, and no, she's never had that kind of a relationship, as far as Ellen knows."

"Sam, I gotta go. I promised her I would wake her up before we crossed state lines."

"Okay. Be good Dean, she needs time to-"

"Go see to Jo instead, Sam." And he flipped the phone shut.

Rory rubbed her eyes, yawning until she thought her head might split in two. She looked over at Dean, focusing on the dark road ahead of them.

"Who was that on the phone, this last time? I heard the ringing..."

Dean nodded. "Oh yeah, it was Sam. He was talking about Jo."

"Is she okay?"

"She's still not awake."

"Are you sure you don't want to go?" He nodded.

"Rory... I was thinking about it after I talked to Sam, he mentioned something about Jo and Tristan had in common-"

"Yeah, they both have a small defect."

"What?" Since Dean had made that up completely, he sounded more surprised than curious.

"They don't have an appendix, from birth. Strange but kinda fun."

"That is strange..."

"Dean, if you wanna ask-" she was caught off guard by another yawn before she continued. "-something, just ask."

"How did you meet Tristan?"

"Which time?" Rory said, halfway joking, but a big lump forming in the back of her throat.

"Both of them."

"Dean I don't, I uh-" She closed her eyes. Before her she could see Tristan's sweet and young face, the same face she had been so annoyed with her first year at Chilton. She shook herself and opened her eyes. "I don't think remembering is such a good idea."

"Why not?"

Rory looked out the side window and turned her head. "Hey look, we're not in Kansas anymore."

"Rory." Dean's voice was serious.

Another image flashed through her head.

Tristan, in jeans and a white t-shirt, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a bagel in the other. He was looking at her with large eyes and a smile that had melted her right shut the memory out, closing her eyes to blink it away.

"Dean, remembering Tristan isn't the way to heal me."

"I never said it would be."

She couldn't block the memory out. Tristan crossed the deck outside the coffee place and came over to her. She looked up at him, looked down at her book and then back up at Tristan.

"We met a week after my graduation. We just happened to run into each other. Getting a cup of coffee..."


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: The song that comes on is a Remy Zero song called Perfect Memory and is one of the songs that inspired this fic to begin with.

* * *

**Chapter 6. Perfect memory**

Dean sat very still, his hands placed on the wheel. But suddenly he had the urge to turn the rock music off, something brand new to him. He reached over and pressed the button, the tape popping out and the radio kicking in instead of the tape. He lowered the volume and looked over at Rory.

"Then what?" Dean's voice pulled her from a far away place.

She looked at him. "What?" she asked abscentmindedly. "Oh right, uhm... It wasn't..."

The first notes of a song rushed through the car, Rory's eyelids fluttering as the lyrics rushed through her head with a furious pace. Her world whirled and every word strung like fire.

_Remember how they alway seemed to know  
__We had the forest in out eyes  
__But the earth was in our clothes  
__And they thought we'd fall  
__Not at all_

"It was about two months before you guys came and- well, it was right after graduation. I had just broken up with Logan and I was in a pretty miserable state..."

_So look back on the treasured days  
We were young in a world that was so tired  
_

It had been three days when I sat down on the patio to this coffeeshop I had never been to before, and I was holding my cup firmly to distract myself from all the ahppy couples. I was still torn up inside and I wanted to call Logan with every fiber in my being. I thought he and I would end up together but his ego couldn't take me turning him down. He turned away and then went - God only knows where.

Anyway, as I was sitting there I felt more alone than I had in my life. Mom was off with Luke and Paris was – well, she was her normal self and my other best friend had a family, husand and children and I wasn't in a position to ask her to... I ended up there for a reason, a reason I would later think was destiny. Someting I had never believed in before.

_Though it's not what we wanted before  
Even the saints had to crawl from the floor _

I saw this guy, I didn't really register him as he went into the coffeeshop, and I must have missed him coming out again even though I sat in such a way I should have seen every single person coming in and out.

I was deep in thought when I heard someone say my name.

"I got so scared I almost spilled my coffee," she said with a soft smile. Dean looked from her to the road, feeling a little like he was an intruder to this story.

"When I looked up I barely reocognized him, he had his hair stubbed shorter and stubble on his chin – kinda like you," she said, looking at Dean, but with a beil over her eyes. "He wore a white shirt and jeans, and a necklace he bought in Australia. On his back hung a guitar, and in his one hand he held a cup of coffee. I felt... Stunned. I hadn't seen him since high school, and I hadn't ever really found out what had happened to him. Military school yeah, but for all I knew..." Her voice died down. "He could have been dead."

_Summer's when the money was gone you'd sing  
All your little songs that meant everything to me  
_

He looked into my eyes and made me feel like I was 16 again, whole and warm. The sun touched his hair and he looked like... Like an angel.

"Rory?" he said, thise time looking directly into my eyes. "Rory Gilmore?"

For a beat I tried to remember his name, but then it was like my mind was shouting it at me. It's Tristan you fool! SMILE!

And I did, for the first time in days, smile as I said "Tristan Dugrey is that you?" feeling utterly stupid the moment the words left my mouth. He placed a hand on the seat opposite me. "May I?"

I nodded and the smile didn't want to go away. "Sure," I finally said, just to break the smile from my face.

"I cannot believe it," he smiled. "Here I was, thinking I'd never see you again. How you doing Mary?"

"You still on about that?" I said, trying not to smile.

"Yup, you don't look a bit different. Maybe..." I had looked away from him, and then I felt a hand on the hand I held the coffeemug with. "Hey, what's up? Come on, I've never seen you look so – so torn. Oh."

"Oh what?" I said, a bit more sharply than I intended to.

"Bad break up. Yeah, I know that look. I saw in the mirror a lot a few years back. Or are you still with Dean? Is that why you look so miserable?"

I shook my head, feeling the anger start to bubble – he had always been able to push my buttons. "You know what, no – Dean and I aren't together anymore, haven't been for some time now and even if we were, what's it to you?"

"See, now that wasn't so hard was it? Getting angry instead of being sad?" He smiled a disarming smile and I felt another jolt go through me.

I realized I had missed him, even if I barely knew him, way back when.

"Tristan? You gonna sing or what?" I barely saw the head that called to him, but I saw Tristan's smile.

"I'll be back Mary, just sit right here and-" He got up from his chair, pulling the guitar from it's case. "Imagine I'm playing every song for you. It might cheer you up a bit." He smiled again and I felt more than a little disarmed.

He sat on the stool resting his guitar against his thigh and smiled at me again. Then he starte strumming and sang with a soft voice that made me want to shiver.

_And__I'll__remember__you  
And__the__things__that__we__used__to__do  
And__the__things__that__we__used__to__say  
I'll__remember__you__that__way_

Dean looked at her, and for a moment she was silent in a very strange way.

"You'd-" He was afraid to ask. She was still very much like a cat, one wrong move and she'd jump away, close herself off and never talk about it again. "-never heard him sing before?"

"No, but he was amazing. Tristan had never showed me his good sides when we were in school together, at least not in such a way that I had been impressed. I had thought him charming and a little strange. He was one of those guys that had to prove himself, that he was tough and cool. Not at all what I wanted. But there he was, strumming a guitar and singing the kind of soft something that I had never thought I would hear leave his mouth."

_Remember__how__they__tried__to__hold__you__down  
And__we__climbed__those__towers__  
And__looked__down__upon__our__town_

After that day, I started seeing Tristan a few times a week, then it became a few times a day and within two weeks I was madly in love with him. I saw him all the time, when I had the time. I no longer felt like I was going to break when I was alone. I was content with life, and it was only getting better.

I moved in with Tristan when we realized we spent all our time at his apartment anyway, so I might as well. He took me fishing and camping; I had never thought of him as that kind of a guy but apparently he was.

He took me to concerts and plays, we went to the movies and ate out once a week – but every night for us was datenight.

He took me home to his parents. I got to meet his family, his aunts and uncles, cousins and sibblings. We were planning on a vacation – Paris, Rome, Barcelone, Edinburgh... It was a whirlwind and I enjoyed every moment of it. I was crazy in love and I was so sure this was it...

_And__everything__you__hoped__would__last  
Just__always__becomes__your__past__(it__hurts)_

I found a ring on the kitchen table... It wasn't a diamond but it was an engagement ring. It was this little red velvet box that just made my heart skip several beats. There was music in the living room, and lit candles in the corridore...

I thought I heard something in the bedroom...

_And__I'll__remember__you  
And__the__things__that__we__used__to__do  
And__the__things__that__we__used__to__say  
I'll__remember__you__always  
_

The car in front of Dean slowed down, and Dean relaxed as he shifted gear, thinking for a moment on what might be going through Rory's head. She had become very silent. Her gaze was fixed – right out the window.

_But__then__this__world__slipped__through__my__fingers  
And__even__the__sun__seemed__tired_  
_I__still__cared  
As__I__lowered__you__down__my__heart__just__jaded  
In__that__moment__the__earth__made__no__sound  
But__you__were__there  
You__helped__me__lift__my__pain__into__the__air_

"I had the box in my hand when I smelt the smoke..." Her voice was dead of all emotion, her eyes cold and her face hard as stone. "I saw the blood on the covers to our bed, feeling something break in me as I struggled to not look up into the ceiling. But I fianlly did-"

_I still miss you  
God I still miss you  
I know that you are waiting there_

"He was burning."

_I always thought that you'd come home  
_

"Mixed with the blood was rosepetals..."

_And__I'll__remember__you  
And__the__things__that__we__used__to__do__  
And__the__things__that__we__used__to__say_

"At first I didn't move. I didn't scream. I didn't do anything. His eyes were looking at me, he was screaming my name – he was still alive as he burnt from the inside and all I did was stare. My eyes filled with tears, I barely registered them falling. All of a sudden I was outside, cold and wet, smoke in my lungs and Tristan was gone."

Rory went silent, her face still as cold as it had been when she spoke the last part. When he got the chance Dean pulled over, getting out of the car.

He went around the car, opening the door and with one glance at her dead face he pulled her from the car with great force and pushed her against the side of the car. All he needed was for her to come back to life. He needed to jolt a reaction.

He didn't care how, but somehow she had just turned off. Like a computer.

_If it don't hurt you_

_It won't hurt me that way_

"Forgive me," he whispered first, then – and it took some very heavy non-thinking to manage it – he pressed his lips against Rory's and kissed her. He was furious with her for shutting down on him. He wanted her to heal, not go catatonic.

She responded, and then she pushed him off staring at her. He laughed and she was mad. He had managed to do what he sought to do; shake her from her shut off state of mind.

"What the hell was that for?" she yelled.

"For you too-" His phone buzzed. "Hold on," he smiled, taking up his phone. "It's Bobby," he said before flipping it open.

"Yeah?"

"Dean, Sam's missing."


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: HI! Okay, so this story has been put on hold for the sake of re-writing it and restoring what was lost, but if I do say so myself, this second version is much better than the first. This chapter is quick, and a lot happens. Please tell me what you think when you've read it, I would love that dearly!

* * *

**Chapter 7. Every memory (of walking in the front door)**

Somewhere in the world, Sam Winchester woke up, with the world's worst headache. He looked up, looked around him, and realized he wasn't alone.

* * *

"Would you calm down?" Rory shouted at him and he glared at her.

"My brother is missing!" he shouted back.

"I know that!"

"Yeah, well, then don't you fuckin' tell me to calm down!"

"DEAN!"

Her voice cut through it all; the panic that was building in his chest and the idea of loosing Sam, after everything they had gone through, after everything Sam had survived, that he would lose his brother now was unthinkable!

"WHAT?" he snapped back, taking a deep breath.

Rory stood stock still, her eyes burning into him like two blue pools of water, and somehow it felt more like they were setting him on fire, opposed to drowning him like he had always thought they would. She just stood there with her arms crossed, waiting for him. Her foot tapped gently, until he felt like he was about to explode. He opened his mouth to speak, but she beat him to it.

"Let's go find him." Her voice was calm, soothing, easy and something of a soft breeze against his inner turmoil. He couldn't admit to himself that he had now clue where to find his brother, but he knew the words left his mouth anyway.

"How? How do we possibly find him? He could be anywhere, taken by anyone…"

She smiled. The first time he saw her really smile. "The way you always do these things, your way. Hell if I know which way that is," she chuckled.

He scoffed and shook his head. "Okay." A deep breath later, he nodded. "Okay."

* * *

Rory was asleep in the backseat. She knew she was asleep in the backseat of the Impala, finally back to it's former splendid condition, having been polished by a nervous and very angry Dean Winchester. But as she was asleep back there, somehow Rory got it in her head she wasn't there and then.

She was slipping in and out of someplace else. Someplace very different for her.

She could hear Dean humming in the front seat. She could hear his heavy sighs every quarter mile or so, and the drumming of his thumbs against the steering wheel when he got bored with singing. She could hear the tyres on the road, and the random bird that would caw or flap just above the roof of the car.

She could hear all that.

She knew where she was.

So why did it feel like she was lying on a mattress somewhere, just barely hearing voices around her, with her head throbbing like crazy?

* * *

Dean sat on the hood of the car, drinking a bottle of water and having the last bit of a sandwich, when Rory came back from the bathroom.

"I had the oddest dream," she said, sliding up next to him, grabbing the rest of his sandwich from him, only to finish it off.

"I wasn't done with that," he commented.

Rory didn't pause long enough to care. "I think, I think I was in either a really bad motel room, with really thin walls and loads of people screaming at each other. Or I was in some basement, because it was really cold, and dingy. I couldn't see much, because in the dream, my head was throbbing like crazy. Really messed up headache, for a dream." She snatched the water bottle from him and took a good couple of deep swigs from it. "And I thought – this is really weird – I thought my dream smelled a little like…"

Dean raised both eyebrows, waiting.

"Like Sam."

Dean's eyelids fluttered, not sure where to look or what to say. "Okay?"

"I mean, I'm used to odd and scary dreams, I mean, since Tristan died that's basically all I ever dream, but…" She shook her head. "I'm still starving."

"How do you do that? You eat like a horse, and you look like you weigh about five pounds!" he commented, for once in his life a little jealous. He couldn't have a burger too many without having to find an extra ghoul to kill that week, just to work it off. He laughed at himself; his brother was missing and he was hung up about sandwiches and weight? Maybe Rory's calm was having a good influence on him.

Maybe not.

"Get it quick, we have someplace to be."

"I know that, Grumpy. Don't get your panties in a twist," she said calmly and disappeared back into the store.

* * *

Four hours later, and far too many road signs pointing them in one direction or another, Rory said "I figured it out."

"What are you talking about?"

"The thing you don't want me to figure out," she said, almost flatly. "I figured out how to get him back."

"Did you not listen to a word Missouri told you?"

"Sure I did. But I also know, I can't live without him Dean."

He grunted, and that was the end of the discussion.

Or so he thought.

* * *

"_Ellen, it's Dean. I'm heading back your direction in a little while, I just wanted to check in and tell you Rory's doing fine, we're not so bad actually. As a team, that is. Uhm, I keep thinking about something Rory said about a dream she'd had. Could you ask Ash to check on any abandoned houses or warehouses or something, in the area Sam disappeared from, I'd really appreciate that. And I hope Jo's doing okay… Tell her I said hey. Okay. Bye._"

* * *

Joanna Beth Harvelle hated every minute her mother fussed over her. She fought her mother on everything, down to the size of the band-aids used.

"You need to shut up," Ash said to her, late one night. "Dean is out looking for Sam, and you're in here bitching about band-aids," he muttered, and sat down in a chair by her bed, with his laptop on his knees.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice still thin and bristle.

"What does it look like, huh? Making sure you ain't goin' nowhere, and getting some stuff done for Dean."

"How is he?"

Ash shrugged, but heard Jo was about to chew him out, and said "Fine as can be expected. Sam's missing, Jojo. We all know how this one's gonna go…"

Jo felt her heart drop.

Yeah. She did.

* * *

"_Dean. There's fourteen abandoned buildings in the area, but what's more import, is there is a whole village that's been left to rot, just off the highway there. It used to be one of those highway places, you know? That died when they re-did the highway. Anyway, there's plenty of room there to hide away a whole army if you'd like. Call me back if you want me to tell someone it's time to send the troups. See ya, man._"

* * *

"You might have been onto something," Dean said, closing the door to the motel room behind him, just about flipping his phone shut as he did.

"What?" She looked up from a book, and she looked fairly out of it.

"You okay?"

"Sure, what were you saying?"

"I said, I think you might have been onto something. There's a lot of empty houses and buildings around here-"

"Wait, what are you talking about? When did I ever say that?" she asked, closing the book in her lap with a loud thud.

"On the bonnet of my car, remember? My pretty black baby out there? Yeah, you sat there, ate my sandwich, and told me about your dream- and you might be right."

"I'm still not following a word of this," Rory said with a frown.

"You and Sam, you have this weird- I dunno, connection? It goes beyond that normal boy/girl thing, and we've met people like you before-"

"Like me? Dean, slow down, please? I just. What are you even talking about, really? Are you saying I'm like Sam?"

"Well, aren't you?" he asked. "You lost Tristan, the same way Sam lost Jess, the way dad lost mom, the same way all of them have lost someone they loved – watched them burn or whatever. So you're maybe not one of them, but you have a connection with him, because someone, somewhere, thought you were special enough to torch Tristan."

She flinched, and he didn't care. This wasn't about sugar coating stuff, he needed her to get what he was saying.

"I guess-"

"There's an abandoned village a bit down the road, and then onto some tiny road there. I say we go look. Can't hurt, right?"

"A bit down the road," she muttered. "You said that yesterday, and we were in the car for four hours."

"You're so whiny sometimes," he laughed.

* * *

She listened to the message on his machine a few times.

"_Hi, it's Tristan. I can't pick up right now, but if you leave me a message after the tone I'll be sure to get back to you as soon as I can. And if not, just call again. – BEEP!_"

She flinched, and closed her phone again.

Her mind was whirling around all of the possibilities. All of the things that one little box of things could do for her. All of the ways she could make the world okay again.

"You ready?"

She looked up at Dean, and nodded. She knew what she had to do know, knew how to do it too. "As ready as I'll ever be," she replied, and took the gun that had once been John Winchester's from the trunk of Dean's car.

"Okay, let's do this then," Bobby chimed in, making sure he had enough ammo in case he needed it.

* * *

Sam was sitting up, his head still throbbing lightly as he was talked into moving.

"We need to move, Sammy," her voice rang in his ears, and he nodded. They did.

* * *

Dean walked to the right, Bobby continued straight ahead, while Rory turned left.

Her heart was thundering in her chest.

She would have liked to be back at Missouri's yelling at her for not warning her better.

* * *

She dropped down next to him, blood coming out her mouth. Sam tried to block the fist headed his direction, but had to drop on the ground instead. How was he so strong?

Sam got up, and his kick was well aimed – the other guy dropped to the ground with a pained groan.

* * *

Rory saw him, far up ahead. She was so close. She started running, and she could tell he'd seen her. He was walking towards her. Sam. And he was smiling, despite what looked like a broken lip from afar.

Rory ran a little faster, because he was limping and the other guy behind him had gotten up from the ground.

"Sam," she whispered, just as the other guy tapped Sam on the shoulder.

* * *

SAM!

He didn't know if it was a shout, or in his head. It sounded like Jess, but like Dean too; like his dad and like Rory and…

The knife slide in further, twisted in his chest. He couldn't even scream. He could feel his lungs fill up.

He dropped to the ground.

* * *

"SAM!" Rory shouted at the top of her lungs, running as fast as she could – aiming and finally pressing the trigger.

The other boy was gone, though, when the shot finally fired. Rory dropped down beside Sam, his eyes watering as he was choking on the words he was trying to say.

"DEAN! DEAN!" She cried, desperate to not be alone, to save him, to do something to help this time. She could feel him slipping out of her hands, his shirt wet with blood and her hands stained red. "BOBBY! BOBBY!" Her voice died out, her cries seemingly unanswered.

* * *

Bobby and Dean both reacted at the same time, in different places.

They got there, just a moment too late.

Rory was sobbing, Sam's head in her lap.

She was covered in blood; her hair hanging in filthy clumps on her face, her forehead just stained red.

"Not again," she mumbled under her breath. Again and again.

Dean sank to the ground. He didn't know what else to do.

And then the world went dark around him.

* * *

It had been closer home to Lorelai Gilmore than anywhere else, when they all finally came around. Bobby was pale as a sheet, Dean looked dark – his eyes almost black with grief – and Rory just… she just stared into the wide open space in front of her, until someone spoke to her. It was a collective thought, what Rory had whispered to herself, as she held Sam's dead body.

_Not again._


End file.
